God makes a lot of questionable demands of his followers. Demands like, “Hey, take your kid up on the mountain and sacrifice him to me!” Or “Hey, strip down to your trunks and swim to Liberty Island!”
The latter order was given to an unnamed 29-year-old man in New York city who ended up having to be rescued by U.S. park police as a result:
“When we got to him he was shivering like a leaf and the tides were taking him away from Liberty Island,” United States Park Police Officer Kurt Zeil, who helped respond to the call, told the Post. “He said God told him to swim to Liberty Island. He said he would rather drown than get on the boat.”
Eventually, the beleaguered swimmer agreed to board the rescue ship. He was taken to Jersey City Medical Center for psychiatric evaluation. His condition is unknown at this time.
via Rescued Man Says God Told Him to Swim to Liberty Island | NBC New York.
Again I have to wonder why anyone would think this man would need a psychiatric evaluation. Did anyone demand that Abraham be given a psychiatric evaluation after he almost sacrificed his kid? Of course not! He was only doing what God had demanded him to do and it’s not his fault that God was only kidding. That God, such a joker.
I seriously doubt the folks that arrested this young man were all atheists. In fact, I’m willing to bet that many of them were Christians. Presumably they accept the story of Abraham as true and this demand is nowhere near as nasty as the one Abraham was given, though it is just as nonsensical. How do they know that God wasn’t testing this man’s devotion like he was Abraham back in the day? They may have fucked up his chances of going to Heaven by interfering!
Or maybe the guy’s just a nut and his fellow Christians recognize the fact despite what they claim to believe about the Bible.
Just FYI,
‘Blind Faith’ were one of the best rock bands of the sixties